Bethel Hill Church Cemetery Transcriptions

Bethel Road and Skippack Pike  Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA

Cemetery is in good condition, active, accessible

The first church building was erected here by Hance/Hans Supplee and was not under the charge of any particular society. In 1784, it was organized under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. That year the Methodist and Anglican churches officially separated, and Bethel Hill is today the oldest Methodist church in Montgomery County.  In 1845 the current structure was built by Nathan and Samuel Supplee, and the old one was torn down two years later. The footprint of the original church is still visible in the cemetery.  The oldest stone in the yard is that of Hance Supplee, who died before the completion of the first house in 1770.  Hance is one of 38 Supplees buried here.  George Washington’s soldiers, following the Battle of Germantown, used the church as a hospital, and thirty are buried in a mass grave near what would have been the front corner of the church. An old resident stated that they were “buried by the cartload in the west corner of the graveyard, adjacent to the highway, unwept, unhonored and unsung.” A marker erected by the Gwynedd Chapter NSDAR in 1975 reads, “Here lie buried unknown soldiers of the American Revolution who died in Bethel Hill Church after the Battle of Germantown in 1777.”  The oldest section of the cemetery (Colonial Lawn) lies east to west. A land purchase from the Supplees in 1850 was used to build a new school house (in accordance with the Common Schools Act of 1834) and expand the cemetery.

Bethel Church has recently resectioned and renumbered the cemetery.

Entries are in red, blue and black. The red  dates are calculated, mostly for Colonial, from the death date and age. These are not exact. The blue dates are those found from death certificates, Social Security Index, Military records and obituaries. Black is what is found on the grave stones. The Aldersgate and Wesley areas are 4 grave plots. Asbury is 2 grave plots.

Tombstone Transcriptions:
1955 – Jane K. Burris
2008 – Leslie Lowell-Griffin and Katey Griffin
2016 – Janet and Raymond Vasey

 

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